BUFORD - Authorities with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Hall County Sheriff's Office have recovered the body of a woman who went missing after she jumped from a boat Monday night.<br />
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Mark McKinnon, a spokesman for the DNR, said the body was discovered around 9:15 Thursday morning by someone in the Holiday Marina area. That person called Hall County Dispatch, and emergency crews arrived at the scene shortly thereafter to recover the body. <br />
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The victim has been identified as Christine Earwood, 49, of Duluth, according to McKinnon. <br />
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He said there were a couple of factors that prevented searchers from finding Earwood's body sooner.<br />
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"One is the water in that area [Big Creek] is very deep," said McKinnon. "There are a lot of trees along the bottom, there are also a lot of ridges along the bottom that makes it hard for that sonar to penetrate."<br />
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Also, stormy weather prompted searchers to suspend their operations early on Wednesday.<br />
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"We knocked off about 4 yesterday afternoon because of those storms, and that cut us short a little."<br />
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McKinnon said the exact cause of Earwood's death has yet to be determined. Her body was transported to the GBI Crime Lab for an autopsy.<br />
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